A quick loop around the Prairie's Edge Wildlife Drive this morning showed a lot of bird activity. Young birds begging and flying around, or sitting on the road, gathering swallows and blackbirds in small flocks. Quite a few birds were still singing, including orioles, grosbeak, towhee, clay-colored, vesper, grasshopper and field sparrows, eastern kingbird and others. Young eagles are out of the nests, but in the area.
There was a lone merlin sitting in the top of a tree at about 4.5 miles. Lots of ducks around, mostly mallards and wood ducks. The wild rice is thick on Stickney and Big Bluestem Pools - will feed lots of birds later, but right now it's impeding our view, for those looking for the common gallinules! Shorebirds were on both Stickney and Nelson Pools, including quite a few solitary sandpipers, but also pectoral, spotted and one Baird's. Several lesser yellowlegs as well as killdeer. Betsy Beneke Sherburne NWR ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
